


A Sunny Saturday Afternoon

by Essie



Series: Where the Fairytales Live [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-03-19
Updated: 2011-03-19
Packaged: 2017-10-17 02:51:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,338
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/172128
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Essie/pseuds/Essie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>James confronts Scorpius about the nature of their non-relationship.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Sunny Saturday Afternoon

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sira_scribbles](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=sira_scribbles).



> Disclaimer: All Harry Potter characters herein are the property of J.K. Rowling and Bloomsbury/Scholastic. No copyright infringement is intended.

James checked the map one more time to be sure before ducking into the Room of Remembrance. This place had once been called the Room of Requirement before its magic had been ravaged by war and dark magic. James had heard the story many times from his father, and again from his aunt and uncle and Professor Longbottom. How this place had been used as headquarters for the DA, and how it had provided shelter for the shunned and hunted during The Year of Darkness. Now it provided shelter for the faces of the dead. The wall opposite the door was papered in hundreds of portraits, and in the center hung a plaque bearing the inscription _Depicted are the witches and wizards who gave their lives at The Battle of Hogwarts defending this school from those that would seek to destroy everything it stands for. Memento Mori._

“It’s strange to think about.” James jumped at the voice behind him. Scorpius Malfoy didn’t seem to notice James’ reaction; he just continued staring at the wall of portraits from his reclining position on the sofa nestled in a nook in the wall beside the door. “They were our age.”

James glanced back at the portraits. It was strange to think about, which was why James didn’t really want to think about it. He turned back to Scorpius.

“I’ve been looking for you.” James didn’t mean for the words to sound so accusatory, but he had always found Scorpius infuriating. From the moment Al had befriended the other Slytherin back in their first year (James’ second) James had found the slimy little twerp this side of loathsome, and that side of irritating. James had initially tried convincing his parents not to let his brother be friends with a Malfoy. His father had told him not to be prejudiced, and his mother had asked to speak with Mrs. Malfoy about who got the boys at what times, and what little Scorpius liked for dinner.

“Well, here I am.” Scorpius’ words brought James back to the present, reminding him that he was eighteen, not twelve, and that he could no longer solve his problems with Scorpius by putting flobberworms in the other boy’s bed.

“Yeah. Here you are. Alone in a cold castle room, staring at a war memorial. Instead of outside enjoying the beautiful weather, on a Saturday with everyone else,” James said as he flopped onto the couch, sprawling on the armrest Scorpius hadn’t taken.

“Well that makes two of us.” The corner of Scorpius’ mouth twitched as if he might have been about to smile, but the movement was over so quickly James couldn’t be sure he wasn’t imagining it.

“I was looking for you,” James said, perhaps a little too defensively.

“So you’ve said.” There was no twitch this time, just dry words, and eyes that still focused on the wall across the room. There was silence for several moments while James watched the movement of the Slytherin tie along Scorpius’ breastone as he breathed. Up and down. The green and silver stripes alternatively catching the light and then falling away to darkness. Like a real snake, the scales reflecting sunlight in brief flashes as it slithered towards its prey.

Scorpius made a humming noise at the back of his throat, but he wasn’t looking at James. His eyes narrowed in thought, and he tilted his head.“I like the way the light gives the portraits an almost ethereal glow on sunny days. And as the sun travels across the sky you can watch the colors from the stained glass up at the top of the windows move across their faces.” He was silent for a breath. “It’s beautiful.”

James stared at Scorpius for a beat. “Are you high?”

Scorpius laughed. “No. Just a writer. It comes from running a newspaper. Prose just comes out at all times and I can’t help it.” He paused. “Why? Do you have something?”

James’ mouth popped open and had he been eating anything it would have tumbled to the ground. “Did you just ask me for drugs?”

“Don’t act so surprised. I know you and yours are into all sorts of things.” Scorpius tossed his head back, indicating just what he thought of ‘all sorts of things.’

“It’s not that. It’s just-” James fumbled to explain. “Well, you’re a bit of a world class tattle tale. How do I know you won’t write about my immoral substance abuse in that rag of yours if I give you something?”

“So you do have something?” Scorpius raised an eyebrow at James, before thinking of something and wrinkling his nose. “It’s not Potion # 9, is it?”

“What? No!” James sputtered, indignant and hurt at the suggestion. “That stuff ruins lives. It’s nasty and addictive, and I wouldn’t touch it with a ten foot pole. And you shouldn’t either. In fact, if you know anyone who has it, you should put that big mouth of yours to work and tell me. And then tell Professor McGonagall. I won’t have that stuff at Hogwarts.”

Scorpius was looking at James with a slight smile and a glint in his eye. He appeared amused. “Hit a sore subject did I? Don’t worry, I know next to nothing about drugs and alcohol. I was merely displaying my ignorance.” Scorpius paused and then his face twisted into a wicked smile as something else occurred to him. “I make up for it, though, by knowing a whole helluvah a lot about sex.”

So they were on to this now. Not that James was surprised. This was Scorpius Malfoy, and with him all roads led to one thing. James scratched his neck uncomfortably and did his best not to look in Scorpius’ direction while he said his next words. “Yeah, er, so that’s sorta what I came to talk to you about.” James could feel Scorpius smirk at him. “Not about sex really, I mean, I know about sex,” he hastened to add. James gathered his courage – he would just have to be a Gryffindor about this – and took a deep breath, his shoulders slumping as he turned to face Scorpius and look him in the eye. “Why did you kiss me? Before, in the library,” he continued as if Scorpius had kissed him more than once. “Why?”

Now it was Scorpius’ turn to avoid eye contact. His gaze darted off to the side and then back again. Looking at the wall with the portraits, the ceiling, the windows, the back of the couch – anywhere but at James. He finally settled on a thread at the end of his tie, and began picking at it with a deliberate concentration as he answered. “I dunno,” he mumbled. “Maybe to say thank you. For helping me. Get the list I mean. Or maybe – maybe I just wanted to. Because I like you. Maybe.”

There was a heavy silence as the possibility that Scorpius Malfoy might like James Potter hung in the air. James tried to process what he was hearing, and why he might be happy about it, but before his mind could recover from its shock, Scorpius continued. This time his voice was stronger, still shaky and nervous, and he still didn’t look at James, but he spoke with purpose.

“It’s like them,” Scorpius gestured to the wall of portraits. “How they were our age, and they fought a war against the most powerful dark wizard in history and died so that we could have this, you know?” The question was rhetorical, so James nodded his head, though he had no idea where this was going. “Right so our parents’ generation did all these incredible world saving things. They faced real evil and darkness, and they came out the other side and rebuilt. They made the world a better place, and what do we do? We eat and talk and go to school and date and piss our parents off a lot more than they probably deserve. And I just can’t help but think they died for us, and fought for us and made real sacrifice, and how can I possibly be as good as all that and make all that worthwhile?”

James snorted. “Story of my life.” Scorpius smiled a little at that, no doubt remembering just whose child James Potter was.

“Right. So that was what I was trying to do with the paper. What they did. Make the world a better place. Make what they did worth something, by making something good.”

James still didn’t know what this had to do with the whole kissing business, but he thought the idea of Scorpius’ invasive gossipy rag of a paper being something good was moronically absurd. “But-”

“Wait, don’t.” Scorpius raised his finger to silence James. “Let me finish.” James shut his mouth. “I know what you think about the paper. That its all about attention, and that it invades peoples’ privacy, and hurts people. And you’re right, it does hurt people and it is invasive and I do like attention. But that’s not what it’s about. I know that you don’t like reporters and I get why, but it’s not all bad. What it’s about, what it’s really about, is truth. Do you know how I came up with the idea to start a school paper? It was your uncles. I know my history. Voldemort seized control of the Ministry for a year, despite inferior numbers, by controlling the press. He used information as a weapon. He kept the Prophet silent, and since we only had one source for our news – one corrupt source. Nobody talked. Nobody asked questions. Except your uncles. And what I’m trying to do here is what they were trying to do twenty-five years ago. Give people the truth. No matter how painful it might be to hear. No matter how many people might hate me for it. Give people the truth and let them make up their own minds about it. So that nothing like The Year of Darkness will ever happen again.”

James nodded, absorbing it all. He’d heard most of this before, in bits and pieces, and he’d always thought it was just a line, but something in the hunch of Scorpius’ shoulders, in the strain of his voice, and the vulnerability on his face gave James pause, and made him inclined to give the other boy the benefit of the doubt. “Alright. What does this have to do with-” James made a vague gesture. “You know.”

Scorpius glanced up to meet James’ eyes for a second before dropping his gaze back to the thread at the end of his tie. “So that’s what it was supposed to be about. Doing something good. But, as you’ve pointed out, loudly and on many occasions, that’s not always what I accomplish. I certainly wasn’t doing good last week when I blackmailed you into helping me sneak into the Restricted Section of the library by threatening to expose your friend’s personal problems to the whole school if you didn’t.”

“You wanted to clear your parent’s name. I get that now.” James had read the list many times in the week since Scorpius had taken one look at it and then uncharacteristically given it to him, James Potter, with a kiss and a promise not to reveal his friend’s secret without her consent.

The list itself was a compilation of fifty some names Professor Longbottom had acquired during The Year of Darkness. The names of people who helped the DA during that year without ever setting foot inside this room. The names had been told to the Wizengamot at the end of the war, and then classified, only to be released upon the full consent or death of the individual in question. So far, only thirty-seven of the names on that list had been made public knowledge. Scorpius had planned to print them all in his paper when he’d discovered where Professor Longbottom had hid the paper. Or so James had assumed.

“Yeah,” Scorpius agreed. “So do I. I didn’t before. But I get that now. And though I still believe what in truth and free press, and that those names should be made public…” He faltered. “It isn’t me who should do it.” Scorpius looked up, meeting James’ gaze and holding it for the first time in several minutes. “You keep me honest, James. That’s why I kissed you.”

The air thickened between them and James could feel the tension build as his breathing picked up. Some line had just been crossed, some invisible but absolutely palpable shift had occurred, and James wasn’t sure what it meant but he knew that it was heavy and scary and drawing him towards Scorpius. James broke the stillness and eye contact, lunging across the couch to bring Scorpius’ mouth to his own. The other boy’s lips parted, and they breathed into each other’s mouths for the length of a heartbeat, before tongues slid out to brush and taste, and hands made to grab and pull, entangle and feel.

“Merlin’s baggy y-fronts!” James and Scorpius sprung apart and looked guiltily up at Rose, who was gaping at them from the doorway.

“Er-” James began, but really what was there to say? Rose giggled and brought her hands up to her mouth in shocked glee.

“I can’t wait till your parents find out about this! Oh, my dad would throw a hissy fit!” This was not the reaction James had expected. Not that James had been expecting to be caught snogging Scorpius Malfoy by his little cousin. Rose smiled at them, and turned back towards the door. “Well you two carry on then.” She winked at them. “I’ve got to go pay Al his ten Galleons.” Rose shook her head and her brow furrowed. “Little Slytherin bastard knows everything.” The door tapped shut behind her, leaving James and Scorpius to make something good, in The Room of Remembrance, on a sunny Saturday afternoon, while everyone else had gone out for the day.

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for the hp_nextgen_fest. Thank you so much to my beta and the fest mods, who were obscenely patient with my inability to turn in a completed fic by any time even resembling the deadline.


End file.
